First Look: iFlex trainer for Bowflex

These 'smart dumbbells' log your lifting sessions, call you out on your bad form

The "Internet of Things" basically now includes all the things: internet-connected slow cookers, tea kettles, baby onesies. And don't you think that also includes athletic equipment? Bowflex, the company best known for its all-in-one home-exercise machines, is showing off a pair of "smart dumbbells," which log your weight lifting sessions, and also use sensors to detect if you're moving your arms too fast (bad form, dudes). The SmartTech 560 dumbbells, as they're called, then send that data to an Android or iOS app over Bluetooth. Even then, there's a display on the weights, so you can glance at some of this info right there. Once you're in the app, you can view 70-plus video tutorials, courtesy of MyFitnessPal, as well as participate in a six-week training challenge.

Additionally, the dumbbells use Bowflex's existing SelectTech technology to add or subtract weight, using the cradle you see in that photo above. All told, the weights can shift between two and 90 five and 60 pounds of heft, so you can use the set of dumbbells for your squats, lunges and bicep curls. No word on an exact release date, except that the company expects them to be on sale before Christmas. The price isn't final either, though a spokesperson said a set of two weights might fall in the $450 to $500 range. Yeah, we know: Insane. Unless, of course, you were otherwise planning on buying two-dozen individual dumbbells for your home gym. And if you have that kind of money, don't you already have a fancy gym membership? So many questions, guys. So many questions. Hopefully some of them will be answered once we get the chance to get hands-on sometime this fall. Until then, here's a demo video of the things in action.